A Thief in the Night
by beautyandthestory
Summary: Gaston breaks into the castles and kidnaps Belle! The Beast runs after them to save the woman he loves.
1. Chapter 1

The Beast hurried through the halls, his arms full of library books. She had asked him at dinner what his favorite books were. He had been too shy to answer then, shrugging her off, but when he had returned the question she had spoken so passionately about each book she had read, and there had been so few. After dinner he had run off to the library to gather a few of his favorite books to share with her.

When he got to her room he raised his right arm to knock on her door, but quickly lowered it again as the door was already halfway open.

"Belle?" he called out. Perhaps she had left the door open so that the servants could enter. He had never really thought about it before, but it was probably hard to enter a room when you were a clock or a teapot.

"Belle?" he called out again, pushing the door further open and entering the room. He entered slowly in case she was inside sleeping. As in walked in the room he quickly realized that there was no one in the room at all.

The bedside table had been overturned and there were clothes and books littering the floor. The Beast walked over the clothes, searching for any clue about where Belle was. His eye caught a pile of linens on the floor and he picked it. It was a series of bedsheets and curtains strung together into a rope, each item attached with a small knot. She had been planning to escape this entire time! Afterall she had already attempted her escape once. It had only been the wolves that stopped her. What a fool he had been!

The Beast stormed out of Belle's room, headed for the West Wing. He was furious to have been duped this entire time by her. He knew she hadn't wanted to be here at first, but after their time together he thought she had at least grown not to hate it.

As the Beast stormed down the hallway he heard a muffled voice coming from the closet in the hallway. The Beast stormed past at first, but slowed his pace as the muffled yelling continued. The Beast backtracked and threw open the closet door. Inside he found Madame Garderobe with a gag around her mouth.

"What!" The Beast shouted, ripping off her gag!

"Master I am so sorry, but he took her!"  
"What are you talking about?"

"Belle! After dinner she came back into her room to retire for the evening. She was reading me passages from Romeo and Juliet and ohhh how romantic it was!"

"Madame Garderobe explain yourself faster or I will leave you locked in this closet all night!"  
"A man came into the bedroom, he forced his way in and told her that he was rescuing her from the Beast." The Beast shook his head in disgust and started to head back down the hallway.

"No master! You must listen, she didn't want to go with him! She put up quite the fight and he called her insane, saying that she had fallen in love with this Beast." That made the Beast stop and turn in his tracks. Did Belle actually love him? "When she refused to go with him he got very angry, picked her up and carried her kicking and screaming. I tried to stop him. I ran out the door after them, but my legs aren't so quick. He shoved me in this closet to keep me quiet and gagged the both of us. Belle was kicking and screaming up a storm!"

"What did this man look like? Was it her father?"

"No...no he was young, strong and quite handsome." The Beast let out a low growl at the wardrobe's description, "but he did have a foul look in his eye Master like he was up to no good."

"Do you know where they went?"  
"I don't know. He threw her over his shoulder and headed down the main staircase towards the front door."

The Beast started running. He had heard enough. Belle was in trouble and needed his help.

He burst out the front door and into the cold night air. The Beast looked either direction, searching for a clue of where the pair had gone. How had no one noticed someone entering the castle? How had he not heard her screams! The Beast sniffed the air in either direction. He hated this part of him, the actual Beast side. For awhile after he had been changed he had even started hunting and he was quite good at it. His nose could sniff a scent out miles away.

It had been a long time since he had tracked anything. At first he had hunted and killed for the sport, but as the years went on it just made him feel more and more of an animal and he so desperately wanted to be human again. He could smell just the faintest scent of Belle's perfume drifting off to the East, along with another scent that was a swirl of alcohol and sweat.

The Beast started running on all fours in the direction of her perfume. He should have asked Madame Garderobe how much time had passed since the man had taken Belle. It couldn't have been too long. He was only in the library for maybe an hour or two. It had been a little difficult to find the books he wanted, but it couldn't have been too long.

Soon the Beast saw footprints in the snow and he knew he was on the right track. The man must have not come on horse, or if he had he must have left it at the edge of the castle grounds. That was a smart move considering the wolves would be a lot more likely to hear and hunt a horse. The Beast continued to run following the footprints in the snow. At some point it started to snow on him. He could feel the fresh flakes of snow sticking to the hair on his back and his toes tarted to go numb.

When he could run no farther he stopped for a minute to catch his breath, every inch of him was cold and felt like ice and his heart was starting to harden in despair, but that's when he heard them.

"You ungrateful girl! I save your life and you have no thanks for me! When I make you my wife I'll show you what it means to respect a man!"

The Beast followed the sounds and found the pair in the next clearing over. Belle was laying in the snow with her arms tied in front of her and her mouth gagged. Gaston held a flaming torch and was craning his neck around towards his back, trying to look at something.

"If that bite left a mark I'll leave my own mark on you!" Gaston threatened her. It appeared Belle had bitten Gaston in an attempt to flee.

The Beast sprung from the trees with a roar, leaping on Gaston. He made impact, his claws sinking into Gaston's flesh. Gaston was easily taken by surprise and fell to the ground, but Gaston was quick to retaliate, grabbing a knife from his belt. Gaston madly swung his knife at the Beast trying to slash into his ribs and stomach. The Beast roared again, using the strength he had to keep Gaston on the ground. Gaston was strong, but the Beast was stronger.

In a last desperate attempt Gaston spit in the Beast's eyes causing the Beast to flinch. Gaston took the opportunity to wiggle away and throw a clump of snow into the Beast's eyes. The cold wet snow hit the Beast's face and he moved his hands up to wipe away his eyes. Gaston made a run for it and was at the edge of the clearing. Gaston turned back for a minute, brandishing the knife as a threat. The Beast roared back and he could see Gaston flinch a little bit. Gaston gave one last look at the Beast, and over the Beast's shoulder to where Belle was laying before running off into the cold dark night.


	2. Chapter 2

The Beast watched Gaston for a moment, making sure he was gone, before he turned back around towards Belle. She was laying in the snow struggling against her bonds. The Beast hurried over and undid the gag from her mouth.

"It's about time you found me." she said smiling up at him. He used one of his long talons to slice the rope and around her wrists and break her free. Her wrists were sore and cracked from trying to break free from the last hours. The Beast knew she was kidding, that she wasn't actually mad he had taken so long, but he couldn't match her light hearted tone.

"Are you alright?" he asked her, feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt that he hadn't been able to protect her from all this.

"I'm fine, just extraordinarily chilly." she replied. She wasn't wearing a cloak, just the dress she had been wearing at dinner which was horribly inadequate against the night's chill. Belle stood up and brushed the snow off quickly before wrapping her bare arms and hands around herself in an attempt to keep herself warm. "You know you're quite lucky that you have a fur coat wherever you go," she said teasing him again.

He smiled back at her, at least what he thought was a smile. Smiling felt so strange on his face. It had been a long time since he had any real reason to smile.

"Let's get going. We have quite the walk ahead of us." The Beast said. It had taken him probably 45 minutes to get out here, which meant without running it would take at least an hour and a half. The Beast started to walk and Belle shortly followed shivering behind him.

The pair walked in silence for a moment before the Beast started to speak "Maybe if we talk it won't seem so chilly. You know I was on my way to bring you some books when I found you miss…." The Beast trailed off as he turned back to see her, but Belle was no longer standing and walking. She was laying in the snow about five feet away from him. The Beast hurried over.

"Belle?" he asked trying to shake her awake. She must have passed out from the cold. She had been out here far longer than him with far less fur. When she didn't answer the Beast scooped her up in his arms, hugging her tight against his chest. She did not wake up, but she stirred for a moment and grabbed a piece of his fur to cling to.

The Beast had to be quick now, to get her back to the castle to save her! He wasn't able to run on all fours and carry her, but he went as fast as he could, making his way through the icy forest. His toes had long since turned numb, but his fingers and hands were warm against Belle's body. Off in the distance he heard a lone wolf howl and he prayed it would stay away.

The walk back was cold and dark, but eventually the Beast saw the lights of the Castle off in the distance. All of his servants were gathered at the front door when he entered with Belle.

"Oh dear! Is she hurt?" asked Mrs. Potts.

"I think she passed out from the cold. She was out there a long time without a coat." said the Beast.

"Put her in front of the fire. I'll brew up a nice hot cup of tea and someone fetch some blankets!" said Mrs. Potts dashing off to the kitchen.

As the servants rushed about the Castle, the Beast took Belle to the fire. Her hand was still clinging to the fur on his chest. He stroked her cheek softly, brushing her hair out of her face. If she didn't recover from this it would forever be his fault and he knew the guilt would be unbearable.

The servants brought piles and piles of blankets and arranged them on the floor. The Beast laid Belle down on the hearth, wrapping her in a mountain of blankets. Mrs. Potts returned with a full pot of tea.

"What do we do now?" asked the Beast.

"We sit, we wait, and we drink some tea." Mrs. Potts said, pouring some of her brew into Chip for the Beast to drink. The Beast wrapped a large blanket around himself and sipped at the tea, watching Belle as the night grew later and later.


	3. Chapter 3

At some point in the night the Beast must have drifted off. When he awoke the fire had started to die down and the castle was dark, just the last few embers of the fire lighting the room. The Beast looked over to where Belle had been lying but she was gone. He sat up quickly, surveying the room in a panic, but soon found her curled up in the armchair behind him with a book. Her legs were tucked in under her dress and pulled tight to her with the book resting on the arm of the chair. She noticed him looking at her and looked up from her book. The two looked at each for a moment before speaking.

"You're all right." he said, unsure of whether that was a statement or a question.

"I'm more than alright thanks to you." she said and there was that smile again. He had never met anyone in his entire life who smiled as much as she did and he loved it. "I suppose I'm going to have to get used to you saving my life."

"Or perhaps used to me putting your life in danger. Unless you make a regular habit of being attacked by wolves and kidnapped."

"No I have to say that's only something that's recently started happening to me." she said teasing him.

"Did you know him?" the Beast prodded.

"Who? Gaston...ugh yes unfortunately. He lives in the same village as me and wants to marry me."

"Oh." The Beast said. He hadn't thought about Belle having other men in her life.

"I think I've turned him down nearly a hundred times by now, but he is relentless. Maybe you actually managed to scare him off for good and for that I would forever be grateful." she said.

"I'm sorry no one noticed, that I didn't notice he had come for you. It has been so long since we had any visitors in this castle that our defenses are quite lacking these days."

"It's ok. My father told him how to get here. He promised my father he would come and rescue me. That's the only thing I feel bad about. He will be disappointed when Gaston returns empty handed."

The Beast lowered his eyes to the ground. He knew he was the one standing in the way of her happiness and that she missed her father.

"Is your promise the only thing that keeps you here?" he asked her. When she looked at him quizzically he spoke again, "When I first found you missing I thought you had run away again and now I often find myself wondering why you haven't run away again."

Belle smoothed the folds on her dress, scrunching up her face in thought before she spoke. "I don't know. I can't say I haven't thought about it. There isn't exactly a guard outside my door or anything, but lately I haven't found myself wanting to leave and I don't know why."

"Well if you ever decide to run again head East, not West, at least until you get out of the woods. The wolves stick to the West." he told her, wondering why he was telling her this at all. There was a bit of silence between them then, neither one of them wanting to acknowledge their strange relationship.

"I suppose we should be off to bed," The Beast said.

"Here is good. I like being by the fire and reading," she said, "Do you want to hear some late night Hamlet?" He nodded at her and she climbed down from her chair. She laid down on the blankets in front of the fire with him and started to read aloud. The Beast watched her for a moment before laying back down on his back, letting her words drift over him as the night grew later and later. He had always had everything he wanted in his life, parties, food, wine and company, but for the first time he was starting to realize that all of things didn't matter and there was only one thing he truly wanted in this world.


End file.
